In gardening and landscaping, sometimes you just need a clean slate. In other words, no weeds, no grass, no plants, nada. You need total vegetation control. But choosing the right herbicide for the job can get confusing. Ragan & Massey alone sells six different brands of herbicides and each has their particular uses for weed and grass control. For example, two of these products, RM18 and RM43, are both described as total weed control solutions but provide different results. As to which one you should use, it all depends on the project.

When To Use RM18 For Total Vegetation Control

Turning a section of your yard into a garden? Need to remove a ground cover in a flower bed or just want a complete redesign? Need to replant a lawn that’s more weeds than grass? These are all projects that are begging for RM18.

RM18 is a combination of two herbicides, glyphosate and dibromide. One of its best features is it’s fast. It kills weeds, grass and any other vegetation on contact, producing visible wilting within 12 hours. It’s also rainfast in thirty minutes and effective for up to 6 months. The reason why it works so great for replants is RM18 becomes inert once it touches the soil, it is only absorbed through the plant. Your fertile soil remains untouched. That means you can spray your flower bed on Tuesday and start planting new flowers on Wednesday. Or spray your entire lawn Wednesday and replant it on Saturday.

When To Use RM43 For Total Vegetation Control

Pouring a new driveway? Installing a new patio? Clearing weeds and brush along fence lines, mailboxes or retaining walls? When weed and grass control requires a serious, long-term solution, you need RM43.

RM43 is a combination of two herbicides, glyphosate and imazapyr, and a surfactant. It contains 43 percent glyphosate (compared to the 18 percent RM18 contains). This extra weed-killing power means anything RM43 touches, stays dead for up to a year. It remains in the soil, preventing new growth from surviving. It controls more than 150 varieties of grasses, weeds, brush, vines and trees and is rainfast in two hours.

Think of it like this: RM43 is for areas you don’t want growth to return and RM18 is for areas you want to quickly clear and replace. You should always read the entire label of each product (RM18 and RM43) to be sure you’re using it properly.